dirge

American  

[durj] / dɜrdʒ /

noun

1. a funeral song or tune, or one expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead.

2. any composition resembling such a song or tune in character, as a poem of lament for the dead or solemn, mournful music.

   Tennyson's dirge for the Duke of Wellington.

3. a mournful sound resembling a dirge.

   The autumn wind sang the dirge of summer.

4. Ecclesiastical. the office of the dead, or the funeral service as sung.

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dirge British  

/ dɜːdʒ /

noun

1. a chant of lamentation for the dead

2. the funeral service in its solemn or sung forms

3. any mourning song or melody

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Other Word Forms

• dirgeful adjective

Etymology

Origin of dirge

1175–1225; Middle English dir ( i ) ge < Latin: direct, syncopated variant of dīrige (imperative of dīrigere ), first word of the antiphon sung in the Latin office of the dead (Psalm V, 8)

Example Sentences

Instead, they foundered in the breeze, squeezing out whatever bitter juice was left in a dirge that would prove to drag on for at least another week.

From Slate • Feb. 23, 2026

It might be time to pause the funeral dirge for software and services stocks.

From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026

But this isn’t a dirge — it’s a fight song and a taunt, and it sets the tone of comfortable, mischievous defiance that threads through the entire album.

From Salon • Sep. 2, 2025

Al-Hijazi joined her relatives in the square, beating her chest to the rhythm of a funereal dirge, tears streaming down her cheek.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2025

Bullfrogs croaked in a feverish dirge, while larger game, alarmed by my trespass, thrashed through the underbrush, making me feel as though I was being pursued on all sides.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Related Words

• elegy
• hymn